06 June 2014

A Dictionary on Adoption

In researching the Korean language for my next ceramic piece, I have learned that all words are not quite equal.

Time has altered the ideas of words. There are the words written by Koreans, the words in an old Japanese publishing of a Korean dictionary, and the words of an American published Korean dictionary.

Pause and consider these interpretations of the language.

This dictionary was given to me today by my daughter’s friend’s Korean mother.


This one was given to me early in my life by my father. He bought it during the Korean War in the 1950s, before the flood of Korean adoptees in America.


Lastly, pages of the two together. Notice that the 1950s version only mentions an adopted son. Curious about that one …


I wonder if adoption in the 1950s was an honor only granted to sons. Would no respectable Korean family adopt a daughter?

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